Don't get me wrong I love my tour, it just works for alot of things for me. Mainly keyboard and I can actully get things done faster on it. But I'm with sprint and the evo 4g is a killer and the fact that you can actully type faster with swype like seen in the samsung commerical (not that fast maybe).

Anyway I just saw this on yahoo and honestly I have to agree because RIM is getting dated everyday. I don't see how a blackberry phone can cost as much or equal to any of the other iphones, etc.

I have to agree with you that RIM is starting to lose the battle to Apple and other PDA phone like devices. Their App Store is very small compared to Apples, and here in Canada one of the banks, CIBC has just released a application for the iPhone allowing customers to do their banking safely and securely soon the other 3 banks will follow I am sure, on that note no one is really developing applications for RIM, all I see in the app store is mickey mouse like applications.

I would love to be able to see all the traffic cams between Toronto and Windsor Ontario like I can on an iPhone. (yes there is an app for the iPhone), so I know what area's to avoid on my way home from the office, but no one will write such an application; I believe RIM is simply making it too difficult for people to develop software or aren't giving enough incentives to the developers.

I think once Apple releases the iPhone 4G I am going to bail, I just don't find RIM's QOP to be on the high-end level that it use to be.

Sadly the above is only your personal take on the corporation's future and has absolutely nothing to do with where the company wishes to be.

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM - Earning Conference Call "Growth in the non-enterprise space is bigger than the enterprise space. The company hopes to grow further in that space with new multimedia and consumer-centric devices."

Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM - Mobile World Congress Barcelona, Spain "We are actively targeting the consumer user base, the company is trying to attract wider consumer audiences and the new browser along with smart applications are clearly steps towards that direction."

If you're genuinely interested in the company's future i would advice to pay more attention to the public keynotes released by RIM and try to avoid spreading personal FUD and/or personal interpretations of reality that fall far from the truth.

You're also more than welcome to acquire RIM stock and attend the investor events and stockholder's meetings like the rest of us.

The "teenies" you so hatefully bash are RIM's primary target market. And rightfully so.

I love how you quote RIM's CEO's who are very good at putting their own "SPIN" on things. CEO's say one thing about a product while the manufacturing floor says the complete opposite. Sure RIM might be positioning themselves to provide better devices but that's a long-term commitment meaning it will take them years to get to the level which they can compete against someone like Apple (which btw their CEO's keep them hush hush) as an example.

Oh and the CEO's "SPIN" also is to keep their investors from walking out the door and dropping their stock on the market; which would cause RIM to fall apart.

Sure RIM might be positioning themselves to provide better devices but that's a long-term commitment meaning it will take them years to get to the level which they can compete against someone like Apple (which btw their CEO's keep them hush hush) as an example.

Every company positions themselves to deliver a better product if they wish to stay in business. That's irrelevant though to what has been discussed. My comments were directed to the fellow members that claimed RIM would stay away from the teen userbase. And we clearly established that to be wrong since the company and the stockholders strongly support targeting the said market.

As for RIM competing directly with Apple that would also take place in that exact userspace. The corporate clients can't activate Apple Inc products on their BES infrastructure so they won't be playing Assassin's Creed nor downloading fart applications to their corporate issued handsets anytime soon.

Every company positions themselves to deliver a better product if they wish to stay in business. That's irrelevant though to what has been discussed. My comments were directed to the fellow members that claimed RIM would stay away from the teen userbase. And we clearly established that to be wrong since the company and the stockholders strongly support targeting the said market.

As for RIM competing directly with Apple that would also take place in that exact userspace. The corporate clients can't activate Apple Inc products on their BES infrastructure so they won't be playing Assassin's Creed nor downloading fart applications to their corporate issued handsets anytime soon.

You think that's going to stop companies from using the ActiveSync in Exchange to hook up their iPhone employees?

You forget it costs companies $100 per user to operate BES, were chances are they have already paid for the licensing with Microsoft for Exchange; they will start to wonder why they should have to pay twice.

Current companies using BES may still switch to iPhone's if it's true about the economy and they start to hire more people.

Current companies using BES may still switch to iPhone's if it's true about the economy and they start to hire more people.

A lot of things "may" happen. Cost reduction is not a panacea nor the ultimate
decisive factor for infrastructure decisions. There are tons of government agencies and private corporations that need to satisfy compliance and security requirements and maintain granular control and accounting over the use of the handsets. Currently we don't have anything in the market remotely close to BES. In the future? Who knows..

IMO the iPhone isn't RIM's most feared competitor. I think the android phone is more apt to cut into the BB business. The iPhone isn't going to change (much). They pimp their app store and all the cutesy apps you can use to read golf greens check your bank balance with. Those are nice for people like me, but the business people really don't mess with that stuff. If they do they have a second phone for that. Iphone's Achilles heel is ATT's weak 3G network, and they'd pay a fortune if they could roll it out on Verizon today. Because they're getting shot at by the Droid, the eris, the Incredible and once you've gone Android you won't be back for an iPhone.

IMO the iPhone isn't RIM's most feared competitor. I think the android phone is more apt to cut into the BB business. The iPhone isn't going to change (much). They pimp their app store and all the cutesy apps you can use to read golf greens check your bank balance with. Those are nice for people like me, but the business people really don't mess with that stuff. If they do they have a second phone for that. Iphone's Achilles heel is ATT's weak 3G network, and they'd pay a fortune if they could roll it out on Verizon today. Because they're getting shot at by the Droid, the eris, the Incredible and once you've gone Android you won't be back for an iPhone.

The simple fact of the matter is that blackberries will never be at the bleeding edge of mobile hardware, from the very beginning they have always considered stuff like battery life being vital to a mobile device and as a result it means they will tend to be slightly behind when it comes to adding the biggest screen or the fastest cpu, but that doesn't matter if they keep close enough and keep their own advantages.

Are you KIDDING? A typical battery charge for a BB lasts at BEST a bit more than two days. An inexpensive LG that does just fine for most things {messaging, pics, etc} has a much smaller battery that easily lasts twice as long!

I've seen mixed reviews, I've had friends go from BB to Android and back to BB, while others have went from BB to Android and are happy with the Android.

Solely depends on the user and their needs.

I will admit my list BBM contacts has shrunk a little bit in last 6-8 months.

I've looked at the Android, and the ONE THING keeping me from jumping to it is that it is not a "world phone". It's astonishing to me that for all the acclaim of BB's vaunted "enterprise" roots, that they have never added the capacity to USE a BB overseas! What's up with that?

I would like to add another three cents to this forum. There's been a lot of discussion over some fairly mundane issues here, but I would like to voice concern over something that I see as a fundamental weakness in the RIM OS: It forces one to have our most important data- contact list, SMS and MMS messages and such- held as virtual hostages in the "device memory" buffers. Why on earth is it so difficult for RIM to just ALLOW users to keep that stuff on a removable media card, along with the music, ringtones, etc? OBVIOUSLY if they can facilitate storage of one form of data on media cards, they could do so for any and all of it.

I submit that there is NO DEFENSIBLE REASON for RIM to maintain this antiquated constraint! I can get all I want of that BS from Microsoft. Remember all the garbage over IE being an 'essential and embedded component' of the OS? Hah!

Sorry, I wasn't aware. I have a Storm2 and chose it because it /supposedly/ offered the most options for user management of it's various data buffers.

It being the case that /some/ BB's do have dual band capability, one wonders why it isn't available on all models. Perhaps it has to do with the 'captivity' of certain models with specific service providers?

But the newer BlackBerries are coming with a decent amount of on board memory where hopefully this issue will be nonexistent. Of course nothing stops people installing too many apps to cause the issue again. If RIM can simply add a "protected" memory space for PIM data that would be a bit more logical in my opinion.

__________________
8830 -> 8330 -> 9550 -> 9650
Just think about how far BlackBerries have come from then till now... And what else is coming.

Sorry, I wasn't aware. I have a Storm2 and chose it because it /supposedly/ offered the most options for user management of it's various data buffers.

It being the case that /some/ BB's do have dual band capability, one wonders why it isn't available on all models. Perhaps it has to do with the 'captivity' of certain models with specific service providers?

I think that comes down to "what the carriers want" VZW has lacked Wi-Fi for years while other carriers have had it.

On the flip side VZW has had World Phones for years.

Just thought and I could (and probably am) wrong on that one.

__________________
8830 -> 8330 -> 9550 -> 9650
Just think about how far BlackBerries have come from then till now... And what else is coming.

Sorry, I wasn't aware. I have a Storm2 and chose it because it /supposedly/ offered the most options for user management of it's various data buffers.

It being the case that /some/ BB's do have dual band capability, one wonders why it isn't available on all models. Perhaps it has to do with the 'captivity' of certain models with specific service providers?

The "world phone" issue only lies with CDMA devices (BlackBerry and non-BlackBerry alike). Most of the world uses GSM frequencies. BlackBerry made the first CDMA "world phone" with the 8830. It added the ability for it to be used on international GSM frequencies.

Carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile always had international capabilities.

__________________The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.When you take things for granted, the things you are granted, get taken. Even a mosquito doesn't get a pat on the back until it starts to work.Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.[BES 5.0.3 / GroupWise 2012 HP2]

Are you KIDDING? A typical battery charge for a BB lasts at BEST a bit more than two days. An inexpensive LG that does just fine for most things {messaging, pics, etc} has a much smaller battery that easily lasts twice as long!

At best two days being roughly twice as long as android or iphones though.

I would like to add another three cents to this forum. There's been a lot of discussion over some fairly mundane issues here, but I would like to voice concern over something that I see as a fundamental weakness in the RIM OS: It forces one to have our most important data- contact list, SMS and MMS messages and such- held as virtual hostages in the "device memory" buffers. Why on earth is it so difficult for RIM to just ALLOW users to keep that stuff on a removable media card, along with the music, ringtones, etc? OBVIOUSLY if they can facilitate storage of one form of data on media cards, they could do so for any and all of it.

I submit that there is NO DEFENSIBLE REASON for RIM to maintain this antiquated constraint!

There are plenty of reasons, two that spring immediately to mind are security and performance.

One other word that springs to mind in response to this little rant would be backup.

The "world phone" issue only lies with CDMA devices (BlackBerry and non-BlackBerry alike). Most of the world uses GSM frequencies. BlackBerry made the first CDMA "world phone" with the 8830. It added the ability for it to be used on international GSM frequencies.

Carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile always had international capabilities.

The 8830 was the first blackberry cdma worldphone, I find it very unlikely that it was also the first cdma worldphone though.